As interesting as it was to learn about this stuff with Shawn, or at all really, it was a lot to take in. I’ve been trying to process what’s happening in little pieces but even the tiny ones feel like they’re the size of elephants.

Too much.

I’m trying to keep a positive face for Shawn, and Betty. If I ever see her, seems like we’re too busy doing this or that, or I only see her in passing as she goes back to the captain’s quarters. Oh, that’s a thing. She is the highest ranking of the guard on the mission, so she gets to be captain. I guess technically Shawn has more experience, but he came up from the enlisted ranks. He doesn’t have as much ‘command experience’ he’s told me betty is one of the good officers to have though, she listens to opinions and will actually consider them. It’s all relative to me, I have zero experience.

The plan is to get me into the seat and get a little practice that way. From what Shawn says the nanobots in my body have already started healing all the damage at an accelerated rate, and once they are done with the fixing they will start ‘enhancing’ which I think basically means making me more buff? I don’t know, he’s always been kind of a meat-head so he thinks I’m looking forward to getting jacked.

Can’t say I’m against it, but it’s not on the list of my ‘to be excited about right now’. I’m still getting used to the walking. The fluidity between thinking ‘I’m going to stand up’ then all the sudden I’m standing without aid or pain catches has caught me off guard more than a few times, it’ll surprise me so I’ll stop and lose thought of whatever I was doing. I’m sure I’ll get used to it, I’ve got to.

I’m not as passionate about revenge as Shawn is, I understand someone held me prisoner then had my entire family killed, I’m just so far removed from it. It’s been so long since my parents died that I’ve pretty much accepted the fact, and I didn’t even know the rest of them existed until recently. I can humor them though; they are my best friends.

Shawn had told me the nano’s would have me healed enough to use the chair in an hour before walking off and leaving me in the kitchen area. I’m not sure what he went off to do, I didn’t really ask. He’s always been a mover, even at the house just constantly in motion, I stopped asking him what he was doing, or to stop moving a long time ago.

While he was gone I explored the room, not much to it. There were two microwave-esque machines inset on the back wall, stacked on top of one another. There were a couple of tables in a line about as long as picnic tables and the chairs on the far side. The only anomaly out of the whole thing is that there was a large octagon on the empty wall that was slightly discolored in contrast to everything around it. It was large, I could probably stand in it if it weren’t just a flat spot on the wall. I’ll have to ask Shawn about it.

After my exploration of the kitchen, galley? I think it’s called a galley on a ship. I moved out to the cargo hold and started to explore around. The first thing I noticed was what would be considered the rear wall had a giant horizontal rectangle that took up most of the space across it. I’m guessing that’s the rear hatch of some sort, I’ll have to explore that again at some point. There wasn’t much to be seen for it, I think most of the struts and parts that operated it was tucked away like everything else in the ship.

I wonder if that’s an aesthetic thing, or purpose driven. Before I’d realized the thought had registered I moved forward and ran my hand along the wall, door, whatever it was. The walls are mostly all the same color, the one I touch is slightly darker gray than the rest. Sitting my fingers on the wall I’m surprised by how warm it was. I had figured it would be cold, or maybe room temperature but it’s almost body temperature.

As close as I am it looks, and feels, like the texture of an eggshell. I’d half expected it to feel like bare metal. Wanting to get a closer look I bring my face closer to the wall. The small bumps on the wall look more akin to fingertips, swirls and lines appear to be laid out at random.

I spent longer than I should probably admit looking at the wall. Trying to figure out if it were a randomized pattern that had a repeating point, or if it were truly just complete randomness. Eventually, I decided I would check in other places and began exploring the room, touching the walls, the stairs, even the railing. Everything had the same design and feel, the only difference being that the back wall felt as abrasive as the floor. I figure maybe it swings down, a loading ramp? I’ll have to ask eventually.

“MphhMphh,” Shawn clears his throat behind me and I freeze. I’d been rubbing my face on the railing, putting my ear on everything I could reach for the better part of three hours.

“I was going to grab you earlier, but you were exploring and figured exploring the ship would be good for you. You and the ship are good friends, but if you start putting your tongue on her insides before she’s ready you’re going to make things awkward for the both of you.” He’s got that slightly crooked smile on his face, but he didn’t sound like he was joking.

“…is the ship alive?”

“You could ask her, she’s probably more apt to answer all the questions you picked up while rubbing all over her anyway. The short answer, though, is mostly.”

“You’re messing with me. I’m sure if I asked you will have preprogrammed an answer into it or something.” I’m not super confident in that. Shawn is a good gamer and a smart guy. But I really doubt he has those skills. Of course, up until a day ago, I thought he was a limo driver, so.

Marla, are you alive? I’m hesitant to ask since I’m not sure if Shawn is fucking with me or not.

I am sentient, but do not believe I fall under what most sentients would classify as ‘alive’. the ship answers.

That makes things a bit awkward, but I wonder what she means. Probably something I should explore later.

I’m sorry for rubbing myself against all of your walls, I did not realize you were sentient. I’m not entirely sure why I feel weird about rubbing a ship since we’ve been walking on her floors anyway.

It is not a problem. It was most enjoyable, maybe we can get to know one another better in the future. Her voice sounds lower, husky, almost like it’s coming to my brain in almost a whisper.

Gulping, I try not to think too deeply about the implications of that.

Shawn’s smile just gets bigger, enjoying the change of color in my face.

“That’ll have to wait until later, we need to get into your acclimation.” he waves and we start moving towards the galley, “The program we set up is pretty straightforward, it’s also adaptive, so if you start moving through faster than expected it will follow you along. The initial part is going to be me you and Marla in what we refer to as ‘purgatory’ but is basically a loading zone. It’s where programs can be decided and started. Most of the programs are slaved to the ship in the same way an external drive would be, so every program takes a few moments to load.” By the time he’s finished talking we’re in front of the seats and he sits in one.

“Grab some chair, we’ll start in a minute. The last thing you need to know is that I’m still heavily involved in writing a debrief to give to what’s left of command. Mine doesn’t have to be as detailed as Betty’s, but it’s still a little over twelve years of reports. Marla, mixed in with whomever you decide to be your personal AI will be overseeing your training. Usually, an AI is chosen at a much younger age, especially for someone of your old rank, we’ve been over why that wasn’t an option. Fortunately, AI are adaptive. You are past the choice where you can grow and learn with one from childhood, so we had to improvise. There are a few archetypes, preprogrammed attitudes, that can be chosen from. You’ll have to describe what you want to Marla and she will help you design it.”

He stops to take a couple of breaths, “That’s enough I’ve talked about this a lot, but in the end, the only way to start moving forward is to actually do it. Lean back in the chair and Marla will initiate the training once the handshake is confirmed.”

He closes his eyes and it looks like he falls straight to sleep. His body has relaxed completely, and it sounds like he’s going to start snoring soon.

Trying not to overthink it I lean the seat back and close my eyes.

Marla, can you take me to ‘purgatory’?

Of course, I’ll be gentle since it’s your first time. The ship, Marla, I’ve got to stop thinking of her as ‘the ship’ if she’s sentient is apparently a pervert.

After a few seconds, I can feel myself get tired, almost like I’m falling into a day nap. As I realize I’m falling asleep, and have the thought that I should be awake to do the training I open my eyes to a different world.

I’m standing on the edge of a platform in the sky looking down at a planet that looks like earth. The continents are wrong though, there are only three and they are all connected by thing land bridges. They form an almost loose, off-angle, triangle from the direction I am looking at them. It’s an amazing view.

“Aels, the homeworld of your people,” The slightly British voice of Marla speaks beside me, “I often find myself looking at it.”

Even with the surprise of hearing her verbally instead of in my head, it takes me a second to tear my eyes away from the planet. It had elicited an emotion from inside that was rare to me; pride. It felt like the embrace of a loved one that I never saw, the sun shining on my skin during a cool fall day. The depth of emotion I felt for it almost frightened me.

“It’s beautiful.” Looking over to Marla I realized she’s what I had personified her as in my head, almost. Slightly taller than me, a narrow face with a straight nose. The differences I hadn’t imagined were her silver, almost solder colored hair, and her eyes. The eyes were black like the stars, but the pupil was a bright red light, almost LED like in their brightness.

She has a small smile on her face, “Shawn isn’t here yet. The level of your nanites is a great deal better than we thought. The level of time compression you can safely achieve is much higher than most royal counterparts, and almost an order of magnitude higher than initially calculated. He is still loading in, going forward I would like you to give me access to study the upgrades to your body. The level of the technology applied to you was just coming into prototype status when we came to you, and it was very early alpha testing. For you to have it, and even what looks like the higher end of that is fascinating.”

Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

I was stunned, a couple of interactions between myself and the ship had been almost robotlike initially, except for the last few. Maybe it’s a defense mechanism for her? She can pretend to be a machine, to defer awkwardness? It’s probably more likely she was easing me into the idea so as not to shock me.

“Of course, Marla, anything you need. I’m interested in it myself, for different reasons because I didn’t even know I had it, but still.” The smile she flashes is wonderful.

“Shawn is most of the way loaded, I will adjust the time so all are equalized. The information on tech level will be transmitted.”

A couple of seconds after she says that Shawn pops into existence on the platform behind me. Turning to face him I realize I wasn’t paying enough attention. The stars around us are beautiful. The digital world here looks real, if we weren’t standing on a platform in open space I’d be suspicious it was.

“What the, ho…” Shawn starts to talk and Marla flicks her finger at him, a physical motion I assume to denote that she had sent him information.

“Uhhh…Give me a sec to check this over, can you transmit this to Betty? She needs to know as well.” Shawn is waving his hand around in the air, and I can see his eyes flick back and forth like he was reading.

“I’m surprised, but not too much,” he says with a small chuckle, “We knew you had higher levels of upgrades than was normal. Your parents had left some clues alluding to it with some of the guard, but never any hard numbers. I guess we’ll make it up as we go. It’s a good thing, this makes it a bit easier since you can train faster. Looks like it’ll be at a rate of about six-to-one. Damn. All right. Let’s go through the basics before I leave and remand you into Marla’s tender care.” The last part is said with a smirk that lets me know that whatever is going to happen might not be as tender as I think.

“First thing, all of the things in here are simulated. We won’t know what your stats are until we are in space that has the universal-soul attached. That means things could vary wildly from where you are here once we mesh out. The other important thing is this, most of the information you need will be directly transferred to your mind, and you will need to actively practice something to get better at it. This program will give you the basics of a lot of things, but that won’t mean you can do them perfectly; You’ll know how to fly a ship, but that doesn’t mean you can do it. Most importantly of all: this is not a game. There are ways to stave off death if it happens, but if you die out of range of them you’ll be gone.” The last part is said as a stern warning.

Marla had been standing off to the side watching the planet but perked up after she heard he was coming to an end, starting to walk towards us.

“Alright Baron, I’m going to let you and Marla get started you’ll be able to get along faster if you can work at your speed.” After saying this he holds his hand up and uses his finger to trace a circle, surprisingly I can see the blue outline as he draws, then he puts all four fingers up and pushes them into the center of the circle before pixelating and disappearing.

“First lesson, that’s how you log out if you are inside of any computer, or simulation. We will be getting to that another time, somewhere around advanced lessons.” She had taken on the tone, and stance of a teacher. “The first thing that needs to be taken care of is your AI. We can do everything from assisting with mental calculations to nothing more than scheduling. It’s almost an unlimited ability. Some higher-level AI can control the body to an extent. There are safeties in place though, an AI can never have full control of the body, to do so would violate the treaties of AUS245, and causes immediate purge and deletion of influencing AI.”

I’m glad she added the last part, the idea of another consciousness being able to control me is quite frightening.

“What do you mean ‘to an extent’?” it feels like something that might be important.

She nods her head, agreeing with my question.

“It means we cannot initiate any actions. If you decide you want to do something the AI inside of you can use your nanite resources to speed up your movement, or your mind to a degree where it feels like time may have stopped, or slowed for you. Most beings also leave the allocation of their personal growth points to the AI since the calculations and implementation of a long-term positive outcome can be better calculated by us.” It’s a lot of information.

“Alright, I’m going into brain overload here. Can we just get into it, please? I learn a lot better by doing.” My head was starting to hurt at all the information I’d taken in lately.

She nods her head and pushes her hand away from her shoulder, almost like she’s tossing something away. As she does four lights, brown, red, yellow, and green come from her hand into an arc that follows if she had thrown something.

They are each about the size of a baseball and pulsing at different intervals. The Brown is a slow pulse, calming to look at. The red is blinking faster, and deeper almost angry. The yellow is pulsing even faster than the red, but I feel it’s more of urgency than anger. The green has a very even pulse to it, somewhat slower than the green, but much faster than the Brown. As I’m looking at them I realize there’s one on the end, a purple one that I hadn’t noticed before because of the darkness I get the feeling that it isn’t pulsing to the light, but into the dark. I feel drawn to it. The second I realize it’s the one I want to study the other four wink out and it comes to float in front of me.

“That is an odd choice. The purple cores are often unnoticed, and even more often not chosen because they are a mix of all. They are the slowest to grow. You will gain abilities slower, but they will be more potent at lower levels. I believe a purple is what was chosen as my base core. It’s hard to tell since there is no way to check color after integration.” I’m surprised again at the level of introspection from Marla. If I hadn’t known she was a ship I would assume she was another person in here with me.

“OK. The next is the easiest, but the most dangerous. You’ll reach out with your off-hand and wrap your hand around the ball. It must accept you. It is rare that a base AI does not, but a complete incompatibility between the two can damage the user, and destroy the core. If it rejects you and is destroyed it will leave a ‘scar’ on your psyche that will make integrating any AI afterward almost impossible. The trick is to want the AI, you should allow it to probe your mind without stopping it. I know that sounds weird since you have never had to learn things like this, but it’s basically just opening up and accepting.” She gives a small smile, folding her hands together and waiting.

That does not sound good. I’m not sure how I’m just supposed to ‘accept’ it without clamming up. Not too much to do other than reach out and grab it so I reach out and wrap my hand around the AI core. It’s about the size of a baseball and feels like a cold ball of glass. After I have a firm grip I close my eyes and imagine my brain is a small castle and I’m opening the doors.

With that image in my mind, I realize that without my bidding I can feel something waiting outside of the gate, and I almost hesitate. Realizing that its already there and stopping might hurt me and kill it I resume the opening almost immediately and feel a pulse of appreciation from whatever is outside of the gate.

After the door is open far enough to see out I see an amorphous, almost human-shaped shadow outside that is colored like the purple-core. It’s about the same size as me, and I can almost see its head move from side to side. Probably the same bit of hesitation I had, I might be imagining that I’m not sure of the complexity of a base AI. So, I really don’t have any information to go on. I see it solidify a bit more than it was, almost becoming a concrete human-shape, then take a step over the threshold of my mind-gate.

It’s hard to describe what happened after that. Everything happened at such speed that there wasn’t enough for me to save it as solid memories. Thinking back, I remember standing in front of the AI and reaching to shake its hand, then a flash and we are looking at a memory of me standing over two caskets, then in the police station, I’d spent so much time in trying to find someone to help me investigate my parent’s death.

After that little snippet of my life flashed by faster and faster. Too fast for me to even account for any of the memories. Afterwards, everything comes to a stop with me and the AI standing at the gates of the castle with our palms pushed together. The AI had changed and now looked exactly like Marla, but the opposite colors.

Where Marla’s skin was an alabaster-white, my AI was the shade purple so dark it was almost black. Her eyes shined with the purple light of a sunset after dusk. I couldn’t help but feel like she was a childhood friend.

“…what?” the AI even had almost the same tone of voice as Marla did.

Before I got the chance to start asking her questions I felt myself being forcibly logged out of the training area and opened my eyes to a distraught and frightened Betty standing over me. It took me a minute to realize the disconnect was that I was now laying down, the chair I had been sitting in fully reclining.

“How do you feel? Are you ok? How many fingers am I holding up? Can you talk?” She was rapid-fire asking me questions without giving me a chance to answer. She seemed panicked, almost in a manic state.

“I feel fine Betty, I think I’m ok, three fingers, and I can talk.” I was still trying to get my brain in gear from the switch out of the training area, I felt incredibly groggy. On top of that my body was very stiff. If this is what it felt like to go into the training machine I’m not sure I want to keep doing it. “Calm down Betty, I didn’t even get to ask my AI her name….”

My AI. I now essentially have another being residing inside of me.

Betty looked like she had calmed down, almost to her normal self. “We were unable to wake you up after the AI initialization started. Marla was in a panic, I’m not sure who agonized more over you not waking up, her or Shawn. Did you manage to integrate your AI? Do you remember anything that happened?”

“Yes, I think she’s hibernating or something right now, or I don’t know how to contact her? She was in my mind when that logout happened, but I don’t know how to contact her.” After saying it I realized I knew how to contact her.

Lifting my left palm so that it was above my face there was a purple mark that almost looked like two chevrons had been spun on axis to form a rectangle. Concentrating on the center of the mark a menu pops up into my view, hovering between my face and my hand.

  Self.

  Status.

  A.I.

  Inventory.

There were a few more options, but I ignored them and rushedly concentrated on the AI portion bringing up a submenu.

  A.I.

  -Enable.

  -Disable.

  -Status.

  -Manifest.

I mentally push the enable button, instinctually knowing I don’t have the equipment necessary to manifest her. I’m not sure how I know what I need, but realize that something strange must have happened in the training simulator.

“I’ve enabled her, she should be coming online soon, and we can ask her.”

There’s a fuzzy feeling around my skull, almost like static electricity.

Hello? It’s weird thinking words into my brain and expecting a response, I almost feel like a crazy person doing it.

Hello. The voice coming across is very timid.

I don’t want to sound rude, but I don’t think we were properly introduced, or I have forgotten. I’m assuming she was in my brain for the last few days, I don’t think it worked out the way it was supposed to though. Both Shawn and Marla had acted like I would choose an AI then immediately be able to start training.

Mercy. My name is mercy. Her voice seems to be gaining confidence, making me realize it’s less of a shy thing, and more of a system coming online thing.

Do you know what happened mercy? The last thing I can remember before being pulled out was us trying to shake hands, then a flash, some pain, and we were coming out of the training grounds.

 I can feel her processing while thinking, it’s the strangest thing I’ve ever experienced.

I think it went wrong somehow, most of my memories are either corrupt or missing. Some seem to be archived somehow. We should have integrated then been able to start training and learning from one another. I…I’m going to need to process this, it shouldn’t be this way. There’s an undercurrent of confusion coming from her as she speaks.

“She says she needs to process what happened, that it shouldn’t have worked out that way. I don’t know Betty, this is all new to me, I’m sorry if I did something wrong. Is everybody ok?” Forgetting that I’d already ask causes her to smile a little.

“Were all fine, me and Shawn have been worried, he’s only left the chair next to you for a couple of hours every day.” The way she’s talking I’ve been in there for more than a few hours.

“How long was I out Betty?”

“Six days since you Shawn left you to train. He’s a wreck, convinced something he did during the little time he was there ruined the process. Crucials captain actually threatened to have him sedated if he didn’t get some rest.”

Six days. It felt like minutes for me if even that. I really don’t remember most of it though so I guess I can’t really account for time. Nothing I can do for it now though, I’ll let Mercy process it and she’ll give me an answer. I’m a little amazed at how easy I’ve accepted the fact that a woman now living in my head.

The biggest problem I have so far is that I accumulated more questions when I should have been getting answers.